Painesville approves demolition of two houses, former hotel

They’re tearing them down to try to build the city up.
Three buildings in Painesville are slated for demolition, one commercial and two residential, as part of direct or indirect versions of the landbank reutilization program scheduled to end in September.
City council voted at the regular July 21 meeting to approve the demolition of the former Holiday Inn Hotel at 257 E. Main St., and two residential properties: one on Chardon Street and one on Nelson Street.
“It’ll remove some properties that haven’t been maintained for various reasons by the owners and will free that space up for redevelopment or improvement of the site as it is,” Painesville City Planner Russ Schaedlich said.
Commercial buildings like the Holiday Inn are not a direct part of the Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Moving Ohio Forward demolition program but fall under a second category, Schaedlich said.
The money comes from a $75 million fund DeWine’s office set up from the 2012 mortgage lender settlements said state Rep. John Rogers, D-Mentor-on-the-Lake and executive director of the Lake County Land Reutilization Corporation.
Painesville’s economic development department secured grants for asbestos studies for that building, which turned up findings of the dangerous substance that also needs to be properly removed. That project’s bidding also was approved Monday.
The Chardon Street residential property belongs to the Mount Olive Baptist Church, Schaedlich said.
“It hasn’t been used by the church for years and they don’t want to put the funds into maintaining it,” he said. “They’ll utilize the (eventually) open space for youth groups and things like that.”
The Nelson Street property is not maintained because the owner is dealing with medical obstacles, Schaedlich said.
But these owners will still have the possibility of selling the land or rebuilding on the properties.
The city will front the about $5,000 to $7,000 Schaedlich said it costs for demolitions, which will then be reimbursed in full by the Attorney General’s office.
To date, $67 million of that fund has been spent statewide on taking down 12,000 residences.
“If some of those monies aren’t spent by Sept. 30, they could reallocate them to communities that still need demolitions,” Rogers said.
Painesville has demolished 10 since the beginning of the year.
Rogers said Lake County has demolished 35 homes and has four under contract for demolition. He said an additional 36 homes have been deemed demo-worthy by city leaders around the county.
He said other corporate demolition projects include taking down the former Merrick Hutchinson School on River Street in Grand River and the former Dworkin and Bernstein building on Erie Street in Painesville across from the county jail.

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